Feds follow California’s global warming lead

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California greeted the federal government’s first tentative step toward regulating greenhouse gases with a collective its-about-time shrug. ‘While the federal government was asleep at the wheel for years, we in California have known greenhouse gases are a threat to our health and to our environment -- that’s why we have taken such aggressive action,’ said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, noting the ‘promising’ signs that Washington is moving forward.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a finding that carbon dioxide and other planet-heating gases threaten human health and well-being and could be regulated under the Clean Air Act. But California has been passing laws and regulations to limit greenhouse gases since 2002, when it enacted legislation to limit emissions of carbon dioxide from automobile tailpipes.

‘EPA has been resisting for a decade, and it took a Supreme Court case and a change of administrations for it to change,’ said Mary D. Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board. The board is implementing a statewide plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions across the California economy by about 15% below today’s levels.’The federal government is putting a stamp of approval on what California is already doing,’ she said.

Now comes the real test: by June 30, the EPA is to decide whether to allow California to implement its 2002 law to slash the carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles -- rules that were upheld by the Bush administration. EPA’s finding this week ‘buttresses our case,’ Nichols said.

If the administration agrees, 13 states and the District of Columbia are ready to adopt California’s rules, which would then cover about 40% of the national automobile market.

--Margot Roosevelt